Posts Tagged ‘gardening for wildlife’

My willow sculptures when placed outdoors often prove to be attractive to nesting birds, last night I noticed that a wren has recently built its mossy nest in this old willow flower on the east facing end of the shed.

Dahlias offer a fantastically long flowering season brightening the garden into early autumn. They may not be everyone’s favourite however with the huge variety on offer, it would be very difficult to not find one you like. From miniature pompoms to neat anemones, massive semi-cactus to dainty water lily forms they come in colours ranging from pure white, vibrant orange to deep velvety red.

In my garden I grow Dahlia ‘Blue Bayou’, an anemone type which is very beautiful but it also provides a late source of nectar to insects. This week I have seen a variety of bees, butterflies (comma, peacock) and moths (tiny day time moths as well as larger moths at dusk) feeding from it.

The beauty of a garden never reveals its whole self to you in one visit, tonight whilst spot watering some new plants, a tiny goldcrest caught my attention. Apparently unafraid, it hopped from branch to branch in the Buddleia then flew over me to the pond and back. It was so close I was able to marvel at its distinctive yellow and black striped head and hear its delicate squeaks. This sighting made my evening but there was more to come when later we spotted a resting privet hawkmoth – large, majestic and elegant with beautifully pointed black wings.

In it’s first year of planting, this wild flower meadow has been designed to reach right into the heart of the formal garden. From here you can step out over the river to glorious Devonshire meadows whilst insects and birds are invited in with rewards of safe nesting in the walls of the kitchen garden.

This finger like meadow creates contrast with the formal canal, rill and clipped hedges (when they have grown that is). It is planted with 1000′s of spring bulbs and wildflower perennials.
The wildflower mix is from Emorsgate Seeds: Cornfield annuals mix http://www.emorsgateseeds.co.uk/

I have just come back from Marrakech, a city that exists and functions as a result of the water channelled from the Atlas mountains. As any short break should do, I have come back refreshed and intrigued by the architecture, the culture and the contrasts of that city. Back home things couldn’t be more contrasting, a lush landscape in the full throws of spring, where we tend not to think much about water in our daily lives, where we can be free to play with it in our gardens and even waste it.
Water in hot countries is used in gardens for its cooling effect, for example in Marrakech the ‘riad’ courtyards are open to the sky with a simple pool of water at their centre, this creates an upward draught of cool air. Here in our gardens water is not usually taken very seriously however it can be a fantastic addition to the garden attracting insects, birds, amphibians (snakes!) as well as being attractive, creating dancing patterns of light, possibly introducing sound and supporting a range of interesting aquatic plants. The bigger the water feature, the bigger the benefit!(http://www.wildgardens.co.uk/?p=2535).

In my garden, the pond is the main focal point, at coffee time, I often sit outside my office next to the pond, and marvel at the life it supports, it is a haven for newts, they are a joy to behold, gracefully gliding through the water and the more I look, the more diverse life forms reveal themselves – last week we discovered that great crested newts have adopted our pond, a large, majestic but rather shy beauty!

The pond in our garden is about ten years old, approximately three metres square and 0.7 metres deep, the base is deeply covered with oxygenating weed (therefore offering different niches, oxygen, shade, shelter, breeding sites…). It has been fish free for about 6 years and it has gradually become inhabited by newts. Last year we had breeding grass snakes in the garden and feared for the future of our newts but happily they are still doing well.

Landscape architect, Kim Wilkie, has a great approach to using water in his projects, in his words “I try to understand the memories and associations embedded in a place and the natural flows of people, land, water and climate” (www.kimwilkie.com).

On Sunday we enjoyed glorious spring sunshine, I spent the afternoon tidying the garden as bees from my hives tentatively sought out fresh nectar from early flowering plants. It was a joy to feel the warmth of the sun – for everyone and everything. Here is a bee on Daphne Jacquline Postil

I don’t usually like to tidy the garden in the autumn, I prefer to let it collapse on itself protecting the soil structure, giving shelter to tiny creatures (e.g. newts) and seed heads for the birds. However 4 years are up and the herbaceous perennials need to be split (before everything becomes over whelming!) so now my compost bin is heaped with dead and woody stems and my borders look re-organised and neat. Of course neat and tidy gardens are not the perfect wildlife haven but there needs to be a balance between the gardener’s needs and that of the wildlife.

I am poised to mulch my beds with woodchip and I have potted up many of the split plants that I no longer have space for (these will be donated to a local plant sale next June).

There is space in the beds now for the spring bulbs to put on their show in a couple of months time – I can’t wait!

In the meantime there is some good foliage and the Iris unguicularis has been flowering for weeks.

One year on in the build, two years on in the design and we are almost ready for planting. The garden has been levelled, using low retaining stone walls, into 4 separate gardens based on the original slope of site. A rill garden, a canal and an upper pool garden will all be enclosed with yew hedging this autumn. The majestic kitchen garden lime mortar walls are almost finished. There are many beautiful details in the stonework in this garden and a huge boulder serves as a stepping stone through the canal via the central axis path.

This is a wildlife garden designed for low maintenance and low impact on the environment. The canal already attracts swallows, they create stunning acrobatic displays as they swoop down and drink from the canal. All the pools have egress points for the creatures it may attract. The kitchen garden walls have nesting holes built into them, all the other walls have recessed pointing to encourage plants to grow in them and to offer shelter to small creatures. Lime mortar is used throughout. Lawns will be planted with daisy and Prunella and cut less frequently than most lawns. There will be trees and hedges which are beneficial to wildlife on so many different levels and borders will be planted with plants providing a long season pollen and nectar.

Months of hard work have gone into this garden already by an excellent team of builders. The design of the garden is the result of a partnership between myself and my client – a very exciting project.

Most of us enjoy the birds, hedgehogs, dragonflies, frogs, newts and butterflies that visit our gardens but I also have rabbits, deer, moles and voles to tolerate not to mention the large grass snakes that have taken up residence this summer. Surely this means I am a successful wildlife gardener?

There is usually a flip side to success and when it comes to snakes most of us do not want to share our gardens with these cool, long, slick creatures, me included. However these discreet sun worshipers have been squeezed out of their own habitat as hedgerows and woodland are ploughed or built over. I don’t therefore feel it would be correct for me to turf them out of my garden as much as I would like to. There is only one thing for it and that is to get used to the new occupants but it might take me a while.

Surprisingly I have come across a distinct lack of sympathy to my plight “Oh grass snakes are not venomous, I don’t know what you’re worried about”. I can only put this down to the fact that most people are not as intimate with their gardens as I am – or am I just being wimpish? You must agree that it is rather a shock when, after a long days work, you find yourself squatting next to a neatly coiled up grass snake in the polytunnel whilst weeding the tomatoes. However this is the best news ever for the common Natrix natrix if people really are as tolerant of snakes in their gardens as they are trying to lead me to believe. Hoorah!

For a great read on wildlife gardening “No Nettles Required” by Ken Thompson